Social Psychology

1. Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(6th Ed)
Social Psychology

2. Social Thinking
Social Psychology
scientific study of how we think about,
influence, and relate to one another
Attribution Theory
tendency to give a causal explanation for
someone’s behavior, often by crediting either
the situation or the person’s disposition

3. Social Thinking
Fundamental Attribution Error
tendency for observers, when analyzing
another’s behavior, to underestimate the
impact of the situation and to overestimate
the impact of personal disposition
Attitude
belief and feeling that predisposes one to
respond in a particular way to objects, people
and events

4. Social Thinking
How we explain someone’s behavior affects
how we react to it
Negative behavior
Situational attribution
“Maybe that driver is ill.”
Dispositional attribution
“Crazy driver!”
Tolerant reaction
(proceed cautiously, allow
driver a wide berth)
Unfavorable reaction
(speed up and race past the
other driver, give a dirty look)

5. Social Thinking
Our behavior is affected by our inner attitudes
as well as by external social influences
Internal
attitudes
External
influences
Behavior

6. Social Thinking
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
tendency for people who have first
agreed to a small request to comply
later with a larger request
Role
set of expectations about a social
position
defines how those in the position ought
to behave

7. Social Thinking
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
we act to reduce the discomfort
(dissonance) we feel when two of our
thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent
example- when we become aware that
our attitudes and our actions clash, we
can reduce the resulting dissonance by
changing our attitudes

8. Social Thinking
Cognitive dissonance

9. Social Influence
Conformity
adjusting one’s behavior or thinking
to coincide with a group standard
Normative Social Influence
influence resulting from a person’s
desire to gain approval or avoid
disapproval

10. Social Influence
The chameleon effect
Participant Participant
rubs face shakes foot
Confederate rubs face Confederate shakes foot
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
Number
of times

11. Social Influence
Asch’s conformity experiments

12. Social Influence
Norm
an understood rule for accepted
and expected behavior
prescribes “proper” behavior
Informational Social Influence
influence resulting from one’s
willingness to accept others’
opinions about reality

13. Social Influence
Participant
s judged
which
person in
Slide 2 was
the same
as the
person in
Slide 1
Difficult judgments
Easy judgments
Conformity highest
on important
judgments
Low High
Importance
50%
40
30
20
10
0
Percentage of
conformity to
confederates’
wrong answers

14. Social Influence
Milgram’s follow-up obedience experiment
XXX
(435-450)
Percentage
of subjects
who obeyed
experimenter
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Slight
(15-60)
Moderate
(75-120) Strong
(135-180)
Very
strong
(195-240)
Intense
(255-300)
Extreme
intensity
(315-360)
Danger
severe
(375-420)
Shock levels in volts
The majority of
subjects continued
to obey to the end

15. Social Influence
Testing facilitated communication

16. Social Influence
Social Facilitation
improved performance of tasks in the
presence of others
occurs with simple or well-learned tasks but
not with tasks that are difficult or not yet
mastered
Social Loafing
tendency for people in a group to exert less
effort when pooling their efforts toward
attaining a common goal than when
individually accountable

17. Social Facilitation
Home Advantage in Major Team Sports
Home Team
Games Winning
Sport Studied Percentage
Baseball 23,034 53.3%
Football 2,592 57.3
Ice hockey 4,322 61.1
Basketball 13,596 64.4
Soccer 37,202 69.0

18. Social Influence
Deindividuation
loss of self-awareness and self-
restraint in group situations that
foster arousal and anonymity

19. Social Influence
Group Polarization
enhancement of a group’s prevailing
attitudes through discussion within the
group
Groupthink
mode of thinking that occurs when the
desire for harmony in a decision-making
group overrides realistic appraisal of
alternatives

20. Social Influence
If a group is
like-minded,
discussion
strengthens its
prevailing
opinions
High
Prejudice
Low
+4
+3
+2
+1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
Before discussion After discussion
Low-prejudice
groups
High-prejudice
groups

21. Social Influence
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
occurs when one person’s belief
about others leads one to act in
ways that induce the others to
appear to confirm the belief

22. Social Relations
Prejudice
an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude
toward a group and its members
involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings,
and a predisposition to discriminatory action
Stereotype
a generalized (often overgeneralized) belief
about a group of people

23. Social Relations
Americans today express much less racial
and gender prejudice
Would you vote for
a woman president?
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Year
1936 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995
Do whites have a right
to keep minorities out of
their neighborhoods?
Percentage
answering
yes

24. Social Relations
Ingroup
“Us”- people with whom one shares a
common identity
Outgroup
“Them”- those perceived as different or apart
from one’s ingroup

25. Social Relations
Ingroup Bias
tendency to favor one’s own group
Scapegoat Theory
theory that prejudice provides an outlet for
anger by providing someone to blame
Just-World Phenomenon
tendency of people to believe the world is just
people get what they deserve and deserve
what they get

26. Social Relations
Aggression
any physical or verbal behavior
intended to hurt or destroy
Frustration-Aggression Principle
principle that frustration – the blocking
of an attempt to achieve some goal –
creates anger, which can generate
aggression

27. Social Relations
Uncomfortably hot weather and aggression
Murders
and rapes
per day in
Houston, Texas
8.0
7.5
7.0
6.5
6.0
40-68 69-78 79-85 86-91 92-99
Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit

28. Social Relations
Juvenile violent crime arrest rates
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
1,000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Arrest per
100,000
15- to 17-
year-olds

29. Social Relations
Men who sexually coerce women
Sexual
promiscuity
Hostile
masculinity
Coerciveness
against
women

30. Social Relations
Conflict
perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or
ideas
Social Trap
a situation in which the conflicting parties, by
each rationally pursuing their self-interest,
become caught in mutually destructive
behavior

31. Social Relations
Social trap
by pursuing
our self-
interest and
not trusting
others, we can
end up losers
Optimal
outcome
Probable
outcome
Person 1
Choose A Choose B
Person2
ChooseBChooseA

32. Social Relations-
Attractiveness
Proximity
mere exposure effect- repeated exposure to
novel stimuli increases liking of them
Physical Attractiveness
youthfulness may be associated with health
and fertility
Similarity
friends share common attitudes, beliefs,
interests

33. Social Relations
Passionate Love
an aroused state of intense positive
absorption in another
usually present at the beginning of a
love relationship
Companionate Love
deep affectionate attachment we feel for
those with whom our lives are
intertwined

34. Social Relations
Equity
a condition in which people receive from a
relationship in proportion to what they give to
it
Self-disclosure
revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others
Altruism
unselfish regard for the welfare of others

35. Social Relations
The decision-making process for
bystander intervention
Notices
incident?
Interprets
incident as
emergency?
Assumes
responsibility?
Attempts
to help
No
help
No
help
No
help
Yes YesYes
No No No

36. Social Relations
Bystander
Effect
tendency for
any given
bystander to be
less likely to
give aid if other
bystanders are
present
Percentage
attempting
to help
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Number of others
presumed available to help
1 2 3 4

37. Social Relations
Social Exchange Theory
the theory that our social behavior is
an exchange process, the aim of
which is to maximize benefits and
minimize costs
Superordinate Goals
shared goals that override differences
among people and require their
cooperation

38. Social Relations
Graduated and Reciprocated
Initiatives in Tension-reduction (GRIT)
a strategy designed to decrease
international tensions
one side announces recognition of mutual
interests and initiates a small conciliatory act
opens door for reciprocation by other party